If you were asked what caffeine is, do you know what it is? Maybe your first reaction is that it has something to do with coffee?

Yes, it is indeed related to coffee, but it is only one of the ingredients contained in coffee. Although coffee has nothing to do with drugs, caffeine can become a drug that is harmful to the human body when it is abused .

What exactly is caffeine?

Chemically speaking, it is an organic compound found in plants, a xanthine alkaloid compound , also known as "caffeine" . It is very light, flexible and shiny, a needle-shaped crystal , sometimes in the form of white powder , with no odor and a slightly bitter taste.

At the same time, in medicine, it is also a central nervous system stimulant that can stimulate the brain and nerves, relax smooth muscles, promote diuresis, and dilate blood vessels. It is a drug that can treat symptoms of neurasthenia and rescue comatose patients.

Currently in Chinese law, because caffeine can directly affect the human brain and spinal cord and has potential dependence and tolerance, it was listed as a psychotropic drug in the "Regulations on the Administration of Psychotropic Drugs" issued by the State Council in 1988. In addition, because it can cause addiction, it meets the country's definition of drugs, and caffeine is clearly a drug.

In daily life, caffeine exists in many beverages and foods, such as cola, Red Bull, and coffee that many young people love to drink, tea that elderly friends love to drink for health preservation, and chocolate that children and people who love sweets love to eat. However, the caffeine in these foods is within the reasonable range controlled by the country for food additives. As long as they are not consumed excessively every day, they will not cause too much harm to the human body.

How did caffeine become a drug?

Because caffeine can excite the human nervous system, people who have just taken caffeine will be more alert to the things around them, their sensory reactions will become more sensitive, their thinking will suddenly become clear, their attention will be focused, and they will feel that their body is very awake.

But there are also side effects. If the mind is always highly focused on the surrounding environment, people will be anxious, nervous, and overly excited . In severe cases, they may suffer from unfounded phobias and insomnia . These reactions have led many people to stay up late to stay awake for study and work, and they have developed a physical and psychological dependence on caffeine.

Caffeine does not eliminate physical fatigue, but blocks the feeling of sleepiness after entering the nerves, and deceives the brain so that it cannot receive the "need to rest" message from the nerves, thus keeping people's energy active. The next day's fatigue will be several times that of the previous one, making people more drowsy and weak, and dazed.

At this time, the pituitary gland in the brain will stimulate the kidneys to secrete adrenaline . Adrenaline will make people more excited, increase their heart rate, blood pressure, muscle contraction , etc. Therefore, people who take caffeine will also feel their limbs become cold, dizzy, palpitations and other symptoms.

If people take caffeine for a long time and in large doses, they will suffer from caffeine poisoning , which will cause a series of physical and psychological symptoms.

People's emotions will easily become irritable, radical, psychologically sensitive, easily angered, and their memory of things will be confused and decreased.

Symptoms include redness of the face, numbness around the mouth, increased body temperature, increased pulse rate, tinnitus, muscle tremors and twitches, gastrointestinal disorders, increased urine flow, etc.

In serious cases, people may suffer from mental disorders, reduced clarity of consciousness, confusion, incoherent speech, and a large number of hallucinations , such as seeing wild animals, ghosts, etc. The body may be paralyzed due to breathing, heart failure, shock or death.

When you stop taking caffeine, you will also experience caffeine withdrawal symptoms , such as stiffness of the smooth muscles in the body, depression, lack of motivation to do anything, and headaches and dizziness.

Generally speaking, if a person consumes 600 mg of caffeine per day, they will become physically addicted within one to two weeks , and emotional changes will also occur within a day , with a feeling of depression and discomfort. This will significantly affect a person's mood and disrupt their normal work and study life.

Because caffeine stays in the human body for a long time, this state can last for several hours .

Caffeine is completely absorbed by the stomach and small intestine within 45 minutes after being ingested by the human body, and then distributed to all organs of the body. Caffeine that enters the stomach irritates the gastric mucosa, increases the secretion of gastric acid, and increases the risk of gastric disease .

After caffeine enters the intestines, it will affect the body's absorption of beneficial elements such as calcium, iron, and zinc, so it can easily lead to calcium deficiency and cause calcium to be excreted from the body through urine metabolism. The loss of calcium will cause various adverse reactions such as osteoporosis, cramps, back pain, etc.

Control yourself and stay away from drugs

It doesn’t mean that you can’t consume foods containing caffeine, but just don’t become dependent on it and don’t abuse it alone.

Therefore, drug rehabilitation experts recommend that every healthy person should not take more than 250 mg of caffeine per day. People with heart and stomach diseases, pregnant women, children, etc. should avoid foods containing caffeine. For all things, we should have a certain limit, do not panic too much, and do not indulge in excessive amounts, so as not to harm the body.

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